Maple Stream Riding Academy

Chapter Twenty: Change

I get congratulated for winning the two races, and Lynn dismisses the Elite team to pack up the tack for tomorrow. Before we leave, however, she hands each of us a box. She tells us to open it in our dorms. I mount Flame again, holding the box under my arm, and ride him to the barn. I dismount and put the box on his stall door. I untack him and put his tack aside, and brush him down. I lead Flame into his stall and start cleaning the tack. A few minutes later, a white four horse trailer pulls up to the barn, making me and Reagan turn our heads. A barn hand hops out and looks at us.

"Put your tack in here when you're done," he says, opening the door to the trailer's tack room. I smile and thak him, working a bit faster to clean the tack. When I'm done, I bring the tack to the trailer and double check I have it all.

"Rea, I'll meet you in the dorm," I say as I leave the barn, grabbing the mystery box.

"Okay, I'll be there in five," she replies from Apple's stall. I rush back to the empty dorm, unlock my room, shower, and change into jeans and my favorite 4-H sweater. I open the box to find another uniform. It has tan breeches (yay), a black riding belt, hunter green riding socks, and a green polo shirt with white going from the underarm down the side of the shirt. It also has a long sleeve hunter green riding shirt for riding in the cold. There's also a note. It reads:

Cami,

Enjoy your new uniform. Wear it to team competitions to show what team you're on. Also, meet me at your barn during lunch.

Thanks!

Lynn

I smile and set my alarm for fifteen minutes and start watching Netflix on my laptop. After fifteen minutes, when my alarm goes off, I head to the cafeteria to get a quick lunch. I eat with Mason, Reagan, Maggie, and Alex, and they all can tell I'm rushing.

"I gotta go guys, I'll talk to you guys later?" I say, getting up to throw my tray away. Mason follows me outside. When I notice him, I slow down.

"Where are you going?" he asks walking next to me.

"Lynn wants to meet me at the barn," I say, pointing to the pretty barn ahead of us.

"Oh. Are you still going to be at show jumping?"

"Yeah, I'll go, but I'm not gonna ride," I say. "I'll observe." We laugh and turn into the barn. Lynn's standing next to Flame's stall stroking his face.

"Hi Cam and..." Lynn says, not knowing Mason's name.

"Oh, I'm Mason," he says, extending his hand out to Lynn. Lynn smirks at us and hands me a bundle of cloth.

"This is your captain jacket," she says as I unfold the green jacket. It's made of light, comfortable material. It's hunter green and says 'Maple Stream Riding Academy' on the right sleeve in white letters. On the back, it says 'Cross Country Team Captain' in white letters. On the left sleeve in white letters, it says 'Cameron Taylor'.

"Oh wow, I love it," I say, putting it on.

"You look cute," Mason says, making me blush.

"Okay, you're free to go," Lynn laughs. "I just wanted to give you that." I nod and Mason and I turn out of the barn.

"I wasn't lying," Mason says, looking at me. I grab his hand and walk with him. "We still have ten minutes until I need to tack Apollo up to head to class. Let's take a walk."

"Okay," I say, walking towards the park in between the dorms and the school. We talk about school for a while, and he suddenly kisses me. It was so sudden, but I didn't mind. We split and I hug him, taking in his warmth.

"I really, really like you," I say into his chest. He hugs me tighter.

"I really, really like you too," he replies. "Speaking of which, do you want to be my girlfriend?"

I break the hug apart and a smile creeps across my face.

"Of course," I reply, taking his hand. We decide to spend the last five minutes of lunch with Maggie, Reagan, and Alex.

"Where did you guys go?" Alex asks when we get back.

"Lynn was giving me a captains jacket," I reply as I sit across from Maggie, Mason next to me. Reagan eyes me suspiciously.

"That shouldn't have taken that long," she says.

"Uh, well... it did," I say. Mason and I agreed not to tell anyone yet.

"Spill it, girlie. We can all see you and Mason are holding hands," Maggie says. I blush and Mason squeezes my hand that he was holding under the table. I look over at him.

"Fine. We're together," Mason mumbles almost inaudibly.

"What was that?" Alex asks loudly, making people turn their heads. Mason pulls out his phone and looks at the time.

"Oh look, it's 1:00. Time to go tack Apollo up," Mason says, standing up. "Let's go, Cam." He pulls me up and walks to the barn holding my hand.

"They're going to find out soon enough," I say when we enter the barn.

"I know, but it doesn't have to be today," he replies, letting go of my hand to bring Apollo into the cross ties. "Wanna help?"

We spend a short five minutes grooming Apollo, and he tack him up. "I'm gonna ride Flame there, but bareback," I say, grabbing Flame's bridle and pulling it onto his face. I open his stall door and lead him out, meeting Mason in the afternoon sun. "Leg up?" I ask, and he helps me mount. He also mounts Apollo.

We make our way to show jumping and I stop outside the arena with Mason, but Ms. Holt sees me.

"I know you got dismissed from class, but can you do a bareback jumping demo?" she asks, approaching me. "It will count as extra credit."

"Okay," I reply, bringing Flame into the arena. We do three warm up laps, and I'm thankful that I didn't groom Flame before or else his coat would be far too slick to jump on.

I canter up to the first jump, counting strides. Flame leaps up and I hold on tight with my legs. We go through the round perfectly except for the final jump, where we hesitated. That was my fault though, as I was slipping and used my legs to fix my posture, which made Flame confused.

"Excellent job, Cameron," Ms, Holt exclaims. "You should do that more often!" I snort and adjust myself on Flame's back, my legs burning from the workout. Mason sits back in his saddle, crosses his arms, and smiles at me.

"What?" I ask, bringing Flame to a stop next to Apollo.

"You look so focused when you jump," he replies.

"Really? There's always, like, 1,000 things on my mind."

"I don't know, it's pretty hot," he jokes.

"Oh, shut up," I say, playfully punching his arm. Then Ms. Holt calls him up to jump. I watch him carefully as he jumps, his posture getting better with each jump. He's almost done, two jumps left. He clears the first one perfectly. He approaches the final jump and I see him mentally counting strides. However, at the very last second, Apollo swerves and goes around the jump. Masons falls off and hits the stands that are holding up the jumps. I tense, waiting for him to get up.

"Mason!" I scream, jumping off of Flame and into the arena. "Mason!"